I am writing this review from the perspective of experienced cruisers (20+ cruises and more than 250 days at sea) who usually go on other, slightly more upscale cruise lines (primarily Princess, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean). So the disclaimer is that we typically would not cruise on Carnival. We chose the Carnival Valor for an extended family vacation get together with three generations of family (ages 80-85, 47-53 and 19-28). We decided to go with Carnival Valor for three primary reasons: 1) we felt that Carnival would be a better choice for the 19-28 age range young adults (which was half of our group); 2) price (the entry level oceanview cabins were priced at a level that was more affordable to the group); and 3) itinerary (this cruise went to two stops where most of us have not been before--La Romana and Grand Turk--as well as two standard and crowded cruise stops--Nassau and San Juan).

My wife and I are both in our early 50s and have cruised on a number of cruise lines (Carnival, Norwegian, Princess, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Costa, Holland America and Cunard). We had said in the past that we didn't have a favorite cruise line, that they all have different things that we like. However, in the past year our view has changed. We do prefer the higher end mass market cruise lines like Princess, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. We also like Costa when they can manage to keep their ships afloat. Holland America is a bit too old for us and Cunard is a bit too stuffy. We've decided that this will be our last cruise on Carnival (and have made that decision for Norwegian as well) due to being too low end and entry level for our tastes.

I realize that my review may sound somewhat critical of Carnival (since this cruise was less than ideal in several aspects), but I want to be clear that we did enjoy spending time together as a family on this cruise. However, in retrospect, we should have chosen a different cruise line. We did a similar extended family cruise a couple years ago on Royal Caribbean and it was a markedly better experience for everyone. We have been on one Carnival cruise prior with our two daughters (out of San Juan for a Southern Caribbean itinerary) several years ago and it worked out surprisingly well, so we decided to give Carnival another try. However, this Carnival cruise was not at the same level or standard. Read more